The present invention relates to an improved turret style injection molding machine, and more particularly, to an improved turret block arrangement for unloading and cooling molded parts.
Injection molding machines having turret configurations for moving mold halves into and out of alignment with other mold halves are known in the prior art. A turret type configuration for injection molding is beneficial since it lends itself to high volume production of molded parts. This is true because different molding related operations can be performed concurrently with the actual molding of the part(s). That is, while one part is being, another part having already been molded can be subjected to post-molding operations such as post-molding cooling.
A number of different devices have been used in the prior art to unload the molded parts from the turret block. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,409 illustrates the use of a robotic type or airveyor type of article removal mechanism to unload molded parts from a turret block. The '409 patent also illustrates an approach for loading inserts onto mold cores carried by the turret block.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,951 illustrates an approach for linking a turret block injection molding machine with a downstream article handling and conditioning system for temperature conditioning preforms prior to them being directly fed into a reheat blow molding machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,767 illustrates a rotary cooling device that accepts freshly molded preforms for cooling in tubes mounted on a four sided carousel attached to the machine's stationary platen. The machine however is required to have a special rotary moving platen and two mold core sets. One of the disadvantages of this approach is that the clamp of the machine occupies almost double the space of a comparable clamp required to perform the injection molding of the parts.
Another approach for cooling molded parts is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,732. Here, the molded parts are cooled in tapered tubes. A vacuum assist is provided to retain the parts within the tubes.
Other unloading devices mounted to an index turret block injection molding machine are shown in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/167,699, filed Oct. 7, 1998, to Ronald Ing et al., entitled Cooling Device Attached to Index Machine; Ser. No. 09/215,819, filed Dec. 18, 1998, to George Kutalowski, entitled Cooling Device Attached to Index Machine; and Ser. No. 09/217,141, filed Dec. 21, 1998, to Michael T. Kozai, entitled Cooling Device Attached to Index Machine, all assigned to the assignee of the instant patent application.
There remains however a need for an efficient and compact device for extending the cooling period for molded parts.